Sikka insisted that the company was not lowering revenue guidance and said it was still on track to meet its target of $20bn revenue by 2020.Anirban Sen&Pankaj Mishra | ET Bureau | October 13, 2015, 09:58 IST

Infosys ​CEO Vishal Sikka insisted that the company was not lowering its fullyear revenue guidance and said it was still on track to meet its aspirational target of $20 billion revenue by 2020.Infosys Chief Executive Vishal Sikka insisted that the company was not lowering its full-year revenue guidance and said it was still on track to meet its aspirational target of $20 billion revenue by 2020.

In an exclusive post-earnings interview to ET, Sikka said the company had made significant progress with its $500 million startup fund, having deployed $35 million already for investments in startups such as Airviz and ANSR Consulting.

“The progress (on startup investments) hasn’t been slow at all … we want to be very selective, we don’t want to invest in yesterday’s technologies, we want to invest in things that are highly relevant to our clients,” he said.

“So far, a lot of startups continue to be interested in working with us, and we’re continuing to do that. Same thing with M&A: we don’t want to buy yesterday’s technology. We want to buy tomorrow’s technology, things that will be relevant for us in the future.”

On Chief Financial Officer Rajiv Bansal’s sudden and abrupt departure, Sikka said that he wanted to pursue other opportunities.

“(Rajiv) has spent 15 years at Infosys and wanted to do something else. He has over the last 16 months been a great partner. He has actually been a close friend of Pravin (Chief Operating Officer UB Pravin Rao) for a long time … I met him first when I came to Delhi back in June last year and since then it has been a great partnership. And, he wanted to do something else with his career, and still has 16-17 years remaining in his career. As much as I’m sad to see him go, I wish him the very best,” said Sikka.

He explained that the company had not lowered its full-year guidance and that it was on track to meet its constant-currency number of 10-12% for the financial year ending March 31.

“The dollar guidance was not raised last quarter and the dollar guidance was not lowered this quarter. Let me say this very categorically: 10-12% in constant currency is equal to 6.2-8.2% on March 31 currency is equal to 7.2-9.2% in June 30 currency is equal to 6.4-8.4% on September 30 currency. There is no change. There was no lowering, there was no raising,” the Infosys CEO told ET.

Sikka also sounded bullish on the company’s $20 billion by 2020 target. “More or less, the recipe is the same - breakdown is 10% coming from newer services, $1.5 billion from inorganic revenue and the remaining $16.5 billion coming from existing services. That is the measure and $20 billion by 2020 with 30% margin and $80,000 per employee continues to be our aspiration and our goal,” said Sikka.

He said the company’s “Zero Distance” initiative was progressing well and all its 8,500-odd projects would be part of the initiative by the end of the year.

On Monday, Bengaluru-based Infosys posted its strongest quarterly performance in nearly four years. It reported a net profit of $519 million on revenue of $2.39 billion for the second quarter.